The Monster Within by Darrell Pitt Read Free Book Online Page B

were like enormous strips of fabric across the landscape.
Small towns appeared. Unlike Barcelona, the houses in the villages were more conventional;
two-storey detached homes with red roofs and white walls.
    Late in the day, they spotted a sprawling metropolis blanketing a valley.
    ‘That’s Granada,’ Fleming said. ‘Its history dates back thousands of years.’
    ‘Have you been here before?’ Scarlet asked.
    ‘I came here for a holiday once. A beautiful spot. I highly recommend it.’
    Mr Doyle brought the Lion’s Mane in to land halfway up a hill. Lush trees and vast
buildings crowded the peak. They disembarked to find tourists everywhere.
    ‘I suggest we split into two groups,’ Fleming said. ‘Ignatius, you and I will start
at the northern end and work our way back. Jack and Scarlet can enter here and meet
us somewhere in the middle, probably at Charles V’s palace.’
    ‘That sounds like a reasonable plan. We’ll take the Lion’s Mane ,’ Mr Doyle said,
climbing back onboard. He gave Jack and Scarlet strict instructions: ‘If you see
anything suspicious, do nothing. Do not try to tackle anyone alone.’ He scribbled
down an address. ‘If you get lost, we’ll meet at the Hotel Hermoso. I stayed there
once, years ago.’
    After Mr Doyle and Fleming had taken off again, Jack and Scarlet walked through a
high archway. ‘I’m not sure what we’re searching for,’ Jack said. ‘We don’t even
know what Tockly or any other members of the Valkyrie Circle look like!’
    ‘Suspicious people often wear eye patches,’ Scarlet said. ‘Or have scars.’
    Jack thought. There was some truth in what Scarlet was saying. They had certainly
come up against enough people who had either one or the other. And some had both.
    ‘I wonder why,’ he said.
    ‘Maybe it’s something to do with the school they attend.’
    ‘The—what?’
    ‘The school.’ She glared at him. ‘It’s not a completely silly idea. In The Adventure
of the Rogues Academy , Brinkie Buckeridge exposes a school training students to be
criminals.’
    It wasn’t such a crazy idea, either. ‘It does make some kind of sense,’ Jack said.
‘But what about the scars? And eye patches?’
    ‘Well, you can’t be an evildoer and look normal. Can you?’
    ‘So they cut each other with knives and poke out their eyes…so they can look evil?’
    ‘Now that’s just silly. They get injured during the training process, of course.
That’s how they end up so damaged.’
    ‘This is making too much sense to me,’ Jack said. ‘I think we should focus on looking
for suspicious people—eye patches or not.’
    He turned his attention to the crowds. Very few people had eye patches. The only
one he could see was an elderly lady with a walking frame, and her frail state made
her an unlikely evildoer.
    Before long, Jack found his attention diverted by the incredible architecture.
    He had seen some extraordinary buildings in his life, but this was breathtaking.
Ornately decorated archways led to corridors covered in mosaics of blue, white and
orange tiles. But these took second place to dozens of intricately carved columns
that seemed to defy gravity by supporting tons of stonework.
    ‘Incredible,’ Scarlet said, gazing about with her mouth open. ‘It must have taken
years to do this work.’
    ‘Probably decades,’ Jack said. ‘Longer if you’re wearing an eye patch.’
    They finally reached the Palace of Charles V. Different to the other buildings,
it was made of square stone, Renaissance in style, plainer but still impressive.
Jack was surprised to find an interior portico—a round outdoor area at its centre—surrounded
by two levels of ancient walkways.
    They waited for Mr Doyle and John Fleming, the crowds milling around. A man and woman
had just been married, and a photographer was taking pictures with a bellows camera
on a tripod.
    ‘My goodness,’ Scarlet said, pointing to the upper floor, where a man was walking
into the distance. ‘We